Hawaiian Airlines Pilot Reports 2018

On February 24, 2018, two separate airline crews — Hawaiian Airlines on an A330 and American Airlines on a Boeing 737 — simultaneously and independently reported a luminous object traveling at extreme speed at 37,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean west of the Hawaiian Islands. The object was observed from both aircraft on the same heading. FAA Honolulu Center confirmed the two reports were received simultaneously and from aircraft at different positions, ruling out a single-point misidentification. Neither crew could identify the object and it disappeared from view by accelerating away. The incident was filed in the FAA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). Details of the encounter were subsequently cited in Congressional briefings as part of the evidence base demonstrating the need for standardized UAP reporting in civilian aviation — a gap that became central to the FAA's 2023 update to its UAP reporting guidelines. The February 2018 Hawaii case is notable as one of the clearest documented instances of two commercial aviation crews at different positions simultaneously observing the same unknown object.